Wheel to wheel action and crazy courses are featured in the three racing games on test. These iPhone and iPad apps are brilliant, entertaining, and challenging for anyone that likes racing games.

Hot Wheels: Race Off

Price: Free | By: Hutch Games Ltd. | Size: 225 MB | iOS: 8.0 or later

In Hot Wheels: Race Off you race along an elevated track that resembles a big dipper theme park ride. The track takes you through the upper areas of a city and there are skyscrapers all around you.

The courses are crazy and totally unrealistic, but they are great fun and very challenging.

The car controls could not be simpler and there is just an accelerator and a brake. These are operated by your thumbs at either side of the screen.

Accelerate too hard and the front of the car rises into the air and there is a serious possibility of the car flipping over. Dabbing the brake brings the front down and by using the car controls, you must negotiate gaps in the road, drive through a 360 degree a loop, bounce over dips and more.

You get points for pulling stunts. It’s hard not to and the car is in the air as much as it is on the ground. Points are also awarded as prizes and you earn more by watching adverts.

The car can be upgraded and you can spend the points earned on speed, grip, stability, and tilt. The game looks like it is in slow motion until you have upgraded the car a fair bit.

New cars are also available and there are over 20 Hot Wheels models available. These can be raced over 40 tracks. There are single and multiplayer options. This is a great game.

Offroad Legends Sahara

The cityscape is swapped for the Sahara desert in this racing game and the vehicles are even bigger. The monster trucks looks great and racing over dirt tracks across the desert is a lot of fun.

There are more controls in this game and the accelerator and brake are on the right, and on the left are rotation controls.

A combination of the course and your speed ensures that you are frequently airborne and the truck has a tendency to rise up at the front or pitch down. The controls under your left thumb enable you to rotate the truck so as to land on all four wheels.

There are frequent jumps and hill climbs, and sometimes it pays to drive slowly and carefully. It isn’t all flat out racing. There are obstacles to be avoided like red hot lava and bombs that explode if they are touched.

Sometimes you have to take off on a ramp, fly through the air and land, brake and stop on a target. The landings have to be just right or the vehicle will be destroyed in an explosion. Mostly you just have to complete the course though.

This is another challenging driving game that is action packed and entertaining.

Hill Climb Racing 2

Price: Free | By: Fingersoft | Size: 125 MB | iOS: 8.0 or later

Hill Climb Racing is a classic game that was an early success on the iPhone and iPad. Hill Climb Racing 2 carries on with the driving fun and takes everything a step further.

The bouncy big wheeled car is back and so is the dumb looking driver who flops around as the car bounces up and down the hills.

The driver can be customised with different heads, hats, shirts and trousers. The car can also be customised with a new paint job, new wheels, better engines with more power, better grip, improved suspension and all wheel drive.

The hills you have to climb are in the countryside and the course takes you on a hilly, but scenic route. There are different courses and some take place in the winter with snow on the ground.

There are lots of jumps and there is the usual tendency of the vehicle to over rotate. The simple accelerator and brake controls are used to drive as fast as possible while controlling the pitching forward and back as you fly through the air.

There are obstacles along the route, like bridges, logs and jumps. You also have several competitors that you must beat to the finish line.

Hill Climb Racing 2 is the easiest of the three games and you progress faster.